This morning I ran the Central Park Conservancy Run for Central Park 4-Miler. I did pretty well! I ran it in 27:43 (6:56s), which in running sub-7:00s is a testament than I’m getting better in my training. I moved my AG% into the 60% range!
The weather was pretty decent this morning. It was sunny and not that humid (it said 68% but felt better than that) at around 72 degrees. Generally I felt good apart from a little grogginess from sleeping with melatonin and getting up a little early. I biked to Central Park and I could see that my legs had gained some definition. I happened to sit down right next to Jessica Ecklund when I was putting on my bib and D-tag; Jessica and I did a film together some years ago, and separately her husband and I are friends from acting and running. (Her husband Jimmie is sort of one of my running role models!)
I had a feeling I’d do pretty well today, and I made sure I kept up my pace. I decided to push myself a bit today, and I felt a first mile under 7:00 was a possibility. Sure enough, it happened (around a 6:40), so then I thought I need to keep my pace up so I don’t burn out. I managed around a 6:48 for the second mile–I lost 8 seconds but still not back. The third mile is the toughest on this course, and I slowed to about 7:23. I did the math and the 23 seconds didn’t completely erradicate my first two miles’ savings, but I needed to make sure I sped up in the last mile. Fortunately, the course is more cooperative, I was up for the task, and there’s my infamous final sprints. All came together and I was able to pick up some speed (though noticeably I couldn’t simply barrel on in that last mile), and I pulled off around a 6:44 final mile. I even got a pretty great sprinting finish this time, finishing in the middle of the mat with no one crowding me and no one overtaking me (at least from what I recall). I saw my old co-worker Jono working (as usual) at the race, and he said a lot of people finished I think around the 23-minute mark, given all the track clubs’ participating today.
Here are my unofficial Garmin stats: